The present invention relates to lights, and particularly to navigational lights. More particularly the present invention relates to navigational lights that use light emitting diodes as the light source.
High-intensity lights such as navigational lights are required on many types of vessels including boats, ships, and aircraft. In addition, high intensity lights are often used on buoys or other markers to aid boatman and pilots in navigation. To aid in navigation, the lights must be sufficiently bright to be seen from large distances. In addition, the lights sometimes differ in color to further aid in guiding vessels or indicating orientation of the particular craft to which the lights are attached. Furthermore, in some cases, the lights must conform to horizontal and vertical viewing angles as prescribed in various regulatory standards.
Previous high-intensity lights employed incandescent, fluorescent or other sources of light capable of high luminous intensity. Some of these light sources have relatively short lives and thus frequently failed in use or when needed, while others, such as fluorescent lights, require expensive power supplies.
In addition to short lives, some previous high-intensity light sources consumed large amounts of power to operate and generated significant heat. An engine or other source of power was needed to maintain the lights for significant periods of time.
Furthermore, some previous light sources required alternating current or high voltage to operate, thereby adding to the complexity of the electrical system.